adding 3rd color to bicolor LED

Thread Starter

SacredGroove

Joined Mar 14, 2010
12
Hey everyone, I have a question about how to get a blend of the two colors of a bicolor LED. When I have both lit, they look more/less like two colors, individually. Is there some kind of lens I could use to help blend the colors better.

FWIW, the LED is red/green, common cathode, and I'm trying to achieve amber-orange.

Thanks in advance.
 

bertus

Joined Apr 5, 2008
22,270
Hello,

The colors will blend if you use a difuse glass in front of the led.
You can also rub the led itself with sone fine sand paper.(if you have some spare to try).

Bertus
 

Thread Starter

SacredGroove

Joined Mar 14, 2010
12
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Tape, I think will be too tedious, for this application anyhow.

How about matte or flat clear spray?
 

HarveyH42

Joined Jul 22, 2007
426
Don't they blend, when fed AC? Normally one color lights with the voltage applied in one direction, the other color, when reversed, both light when fed AC, but alternates so fast your head blends the two colors.
 

KJ6EAD

Joined Apr 30, 2011
1,581
I sometimes put a layer or two of thin white translucent plastic shopping bag material over an LED to diffuse it. If you have the space, using one diffuser close to the LED and one farther away (double diffusion) works well. If you don't have much space, grinding the dome on the top of the LED flat will help by defocusing the light into a wider dispersion pattern.

There are commercial plastic diffusion films. You may see them over the LEDs on a LCD backlight array. Here's one of them: http://www.optigrafix.com/downloads/data_sheets/lightdiffuser.pdf.
 

Thread Starter

SacredGroove

Joined Mar 14, 2010
12
Don't they blend, when fed AC? Normally one color lights with the voltage applied in one direction, the other color, when reversed, both light when fed AC, but alternates so fast your head blends the two colors.
It's not bipolar. There's a common cathode with two anodes.
 
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Thread Starter

SacredGroove

Joined Mar 14, 2010
12
I sometimes put a layer or two of thin white translucent plastic shopping bag material over an LED to diffuse it. If you have the space, using one diffuser close to the LED and one farther away (double diffusion) works well. If you don't have much space, grinding the dome on the top of the LED flat will help by defocusing the light into a wider dispersion pattern.

There are commercial plastic diffusion films. You may see them over the LEDs on a LCD backlight array. Here's one of them: http://www.optigrafix.com/downloads/data_sheets/lightdiffuser.pdf.
Can these be used on a 3mm led bulb? That seems kinda tedious, albeit a good idea.

Honestly, I was hoping for some kind of lens to do the same job. That way I could drill a slightly bigger hole for the lens to clip into, and the bulb could sit inside the lens.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
I think it is a cheap Chinese dual LED where one LED shines over here and the other LED shines over there.
A half-decent Name-Brand dual LED has both LEDs shining forward to the same place.
 

Thread Starter

SacredGroove

Joined Mar 14, 2010
12
I think it is a cheap Chinese dual LED where one LED shines over here and the other LED shines over there.
A half-decent Name-Brand dual LED has both LEDs shining forward to the same place.
Suppose it is a cheap LED. Would you point me to one that isn't cheap? I get most of my LEDs from performance-pcs.com.
 

retched

Joined Dec 5, 2009
5,207
I think it is a cheap Chinese dual LED where one LED shines over here and the other LED shines over there.
A half-decent Name-Brand dual LED has both LEDs shining forward to the same place.
Agreed. often the cheap bi-color LEDs cannot light both at the same time. I have some cheap blue/red LEDs that can only light one at a time. And they are horribly aimed.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
A cheap LED has a narrow beam angle so it appears bright when it shines directly at you.
But a good LED is bright with a wide beam angle. Then if it is a dual LED its colours add together properly.
 

Thread Starter

SacredGroove

Joined Mar 14, 2010
12
A cheap LED has a narrow beam angle so it appears bright when it shines directly at you.
But a good LED is bright with a wide beam angle. Then if it is a dual LED its colours add together properly.
OK, makes sense. The colors are definitely brighter from straight on. So I should look for a wider focused beam then. Or I just resort to three different LEDs.
 

Bernard

Joined Aug 7, 2008
5,784
I'm using " Super Bright 2 Color LED Blowout [ Box of 200 , red- green ] #G17617, @ $6.95, from The Electronic Goldmine. nice orange.
 
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